There was a pause, and then he continued:
“We're not strong enough to go to Little Rock now,” he said; “but the thirty-five thousand men with ninety-two pieces of artillery that will join us in the next week will put us on the offensive, and then Little Rock must look out.”
“How are we going there?” queried one of the officers. “General Curtis told me this morning that we should go across the country to within about thirty miles of Little Rock, or perhaps twenty miles, and there he should divide the force. Two-thirds of it will cross on pontoons, which are being brought along by the new army, and there will be enough of them to lay three bridges over the river at once. While they oppose us at one place we 'll get over at another, and in three hours the entire force for that side will be safely landed. Then they 'll go to the rear of Little Rock and lay siege to it, while the other third of our strength will fire away at it from the other side of the river. There will be four batteries of heavy siege-guns playing on the town all at once, and they are bringing two thousand shells loaded with Greek fire to burn up every house in the place if necessary. Twenty-four hours will be allowed for sending out women, children and other non-combatants, and then the battle will begin.”
“But won't they be likely to interrupt us on the way with General Rust's army and other troops they can get together?”
“They may try, but it 'll be bad for'em,” was the reply. “The government has sent us some of the new shells invented by a Yankee somewhere in Massachusetts, that have done wonderful work in Virginia.”
“What are those? I haven't heard of them.”
“Well, we've been keeping it pretty quiet,” was the reply, “as we don't want the rebels on this side of the Mississippi to find it out if we can help it. These new shells are loaded with a composition that spreads out when it explodes, and kills everybody within twenty yards. It's a secret composition, and the government pays fifty dollars for each shell the inventor delivers, and he guarantees that if two of these shells are fired where there is a regiment, it will kill every man in it. They are not wounded at all, but just fall down as though struck by lightning. Here's an account of what they 'll do.”
The general took a document from his pocket, and pretended to read a wonderful story of how the entire garrison of a rebel fort on the James river was killed by one of these new-fangled shells, which had been dropped into it from a mortar fully a mile away. He told his friends they must keep the matter secret, as it was known only to General Curtis and a few of his higher officers, and they were particularly desirous that the information should n't leak out. “There 'll be three hundred of those shells,” said he, “and half of them will be enough to kill all the rebels in Arkansas.”
Then he went on with other wild yarns with the utmost seriousness, and at length was interrupted by Harry, who delivered some despatches just received by General Curtis from General Halleck and brought by a courier, who came through from Helena in disguise. They announced a great victory for the union army in Virginia, the imminent capture of Richmond, the surrender of a large part of Lee's army, together with other bits of information that would have been highly important if true.
When it was thought that the eavesdroppers had been properly “loaded,” as the general expressed it, the party retired, and the flag-of-truce bearers were left to ponder on what they had heard. In the afternoon the army moved forward to take up a new camp, and when the column was under way—in fact after the greater part of it had marched off—the truce-party was released and allowed to go back to its own camp.